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Cyrus Longworth (PT)
Cyrus Longworth (aka John Yaeger) was a scientist and the best friend of Quentin Collins in 1970 Parallel Time. In 1969 Cyrus participated in a seance to contact a spirit that was haunting Collinwood. The events went horribly wrong and actually resulted in the death of Quentins wife, Angelique. Cyrus was the attending physician and also performed the autopsy on the late Mrs. Collins. During his examination of her body he discovered that Angelique's death was caused by a hatpin struck at the base of her skull. Cyrus was convinced that Quentin, overcome with jealousy, had murdered Angelique. Because of his deep friendship with Quentin, he decided to keep his knowledge of the murder a secret and listed Angelique's death the result of a stroke. He wrote of his knowledge in his journal, which he intended to only be read by Quentin after his death. Angelique, pretending to be her sister Alexis, obtained Cyrus's journal and eventually discovered that despite Cyrus's beliefs, it was Roger Collins (PT), and not Quentin, who had murdered her during the seance. John Yaeger Cyrus made a serious study of science with his assistant, Sabrina Stuart, whom he fell in love with. He and Sabrina eventually became engaged, however they never had a chance to marry, owing to Cyrus's most infamous experiment. One day, he found a way to separate the good and evil in man. When he tested the experiment on himself, he transformed into the evil John Yaeger. Every time he was John Yaeger, he went into Collinsport and caused great mischief. He was even responsible for several murders. Each day, Cyrus learned of the trouble that John had caused and tried to destroy the formula that would transform him. But even when he did not drink the formula he transformed into John Yaeger. As Yaeger, he started terrorizing a woman named Buffie Harrington and nearly killed her. Also in the form of Yaeger, Cyrus fell in love with Quentin's new wife, Maggie Collins. One night, Cyrus transformed into John and nearly raped Maggie before being interrupted by Buffie Harrington. He later kidnapped Maggie and held her prisoner for several weeks. He attempted to win Maggie's love, but she was too devoted to her husband to consider it. In an act of desperation, he forced Maggie to write to Quentin, ending their relationship. When she refused, he threatened to kill Quentin in his sleep. Maggie tearfully wrote the letter which Quentin reluctantly accepted. These events nearly broke Maggie's heart, and she was unable to look at Yaeger with anything but hatred. Barnabas Collins never believed Maggie's disappearance was self-inflicted and eventually discovered her imprisoned by Yaeger. Barnabas was able to rescue Maggie, but in the struggle Yaeger was killed. When he died, Yaeger transformed back into Cyrus Longworth, much to Maggie and Barnabas's disbelief. After Cyrus's death, Maggie returned to Collinwood. Quentin mourned the death of his friend, but was greatly disturbed that it was his best friend, Cyrus, who was responsible for Maggie's kidnapping. Even so, Quentin found it in his heart to forgive his lifelong friend. Quentin and Maggie were able to rebuild their relationship and eventually lived happily ever after. Background Information and Notes *Cyrus was the Parallel Time counterpart of Jeb Hawkes but unlike Hawkes, Cyrus was human and not a Leviathan. He may also be interpreted to be the equivilent of Sebastian Shaw. *Cyrus was very likely the descendant of Gabriel Collins, although it was never officially confirmed. Behind the Scenes *The characters of Cyrus Longworth and John Yaeger were inspired by Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Category:Dark Shadows Characters